The present invention relates to a front part structure of a vehicle body including an apron side member which is disposed in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle, an apron lower member which is disposed below the apron side member in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle so that the apron lower member connects a front-side component of a vehicle to a suspension frame, and a first shock absorbing portion which is provided in a front end portion of the apron side member.
In general, an apron side member and an apron lower member are configured to have large rigidity to support a large shock applied from a front side of a vehicle together with the rear-side components. Accordingly, the large shock is easily transmitted to the rear-side components of the vehicle. However, in such a structure, a shock is easily transmitted to the rear-side components even when a small load is applied in a slight collision. As a result, since the rear-side components are easily deformed upon being applied with the small load, the rear-side components have to be exchanged even when a slight collision occurs. Therefore, a problem arises in that it is difficult to exchange such rear-side components in many cases and a repair cost is expensive.
For this reason, in the past, Patent Document 1 discloses a front part structure in which a first shock absorbing portion is provided in the front end portion of the apron side member and the front end portion of the apron lower member is disposed at a position closer to the rear side of the vehicle than the first shock absorbing portion, thereby enabling the first shock absorbing portion to absorb a shock generated from a slight collision. Accordingly, only the first shock absorbing portion can be exchanged later on in an easy manner.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-165462 A
According to the known front part structure, although a repair cost can be reduced, since only the first shock absorbing portion which is provided on the front end portion of the apron side member absorbs a shock applied from the front side of the vehicle in a slight collision, the length of the first shock absorbing portion as means for sufficiently absorbing a shock needs to be long to the front side of the vehicle. Therefore, a problem arises in that flexibility in exterior design of the front part structure of the vehicle body decreases.